Emergency & Disaster Response
CVOEO's Emergency & Disaster Response team is dedicated to leading critical efforts to address emergencies, assess risks, and provide direct services to those in need. We focus on comprehensive planning, implementation, and management of emergency services programs, including the operation of emergency shelters, especially during extreme weather events. Our goal is to maximize resources and streamline essential support for the community.
Emergency Housing Notice:
If you are in need of emergency shelter, please contact your local Economic Services Department (ESD). The phone number for the Statewide ESD call center is 1-800-479-6151; or, you can call 2-1-1 after hours or on the weekends.
CVOEO's Year-Round and Seasonal Shelter Response
CVOEO provides a continuum of shelter options across Northwest Vermont. For people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, the safest option is to access one of these shelters. Together, these shelters form a network built for safety, dignity, and continuity of care. Extreme cold operations fill gaps temporarily when conditions become life-threatening.
- Year-Round Shelter Network: Since 2020, CVOEO has opened an additional 7 emergency shelters. As of 2026, there will be eight shelters across the Champlain Valley, providing year-round, low-barrier, and recovery-oriented options. In total, there are 84 single beds (24/7 access with no set departures), 34 winter warming beds, 30 rooms for families, and we welcome upwards of 200 individuals a day in our daytime shelters.
- Prior to 2020: Voices Against Violence’s Laurie’s House in St. Albans: Providing emergency shelter and services for individual victims and survivors of domestic and sexual assault and stalking.
- 2021: Community Resource Center in Burlington: Providing daytime warming shelter to all.
- 2022: Samaritan House in St. Albans: Providing emergency shelter for individuals.
- 2022: Elmwood Shelter in Burlington: Providing emergency shelter for individuals (in partnership with Champlain Housing Trust).
- 2023: Champlain Place in Burlington: Providing 30–35 year-round emergency shelter beds and 26 seasonal overflow beds each winter.
- 2024: Voices Against Violence’s Safe Roots Healing Collective in St. Albans: Providing emergency shelter and services for families who are victims and survivors of domestic and sexual assault and stalking.
- 2025: Foundations Family Shelter in Williston: Providing emergency shelter for families (relocating to Burlington in early 2026).
- 2026: Bridges Recovery Shelter in Burlington: Providing abstinence-based emergency shelter for guests seeking stability and recovery (opening in February 2026).
In addition to emergency shelter services, our work focuses on permanent housing solutions:
- HOME Family Voucher Program: CVOEO created and administers this statewide program through our Housing Advocacy Programs, aimed at families with children experiencing homelessness. Report available upon request.
- Family Supportive Housing program: CVOEO developed this program in 2024 with private funding to address homelessness. It is an intensive support program with wrap around services modeled on the Whole Family Approach. Report available upon request.
- Tenant Education Program: CVOEO has redesigned its tenant education program (now called the Preferred Renters Certificate). This is a housing and financial education course that provides a renter’s certificate. This is designed to prevent renters from losing housing and to have them access housing more quickly. This certificate replaces bad tenancy record for most landlords. We served over 300 people last year and the hope is to expand this program
- Eviction Prevention & Advocacy: We are actively involved in eviction prevention through our statewide Housing Advocacy Programs and we advocate for the development of more affordable housing, which is the ultimate solution to homelessness.
CVOEO has consistently proposed a hub-and-spoke model as a solution for extreme cold weather sheltering. Although presented to providers and the continuum, this model has not yet been adopted. The CVOEO-managed model would significantly improve system efficiency by enabling organizations to open beds individually, achieve higher collective capacity, and streamline logistics. In addition, CVOEO has developed a separate proposal for a 90-120 bed facility to be built on state lands, in collaboration with a small cohort of providers (proposal available upon request).
Seasonal Emergency Cold Weather Shelter
In support of the City of Burlington, CVOEO seasonally staffs an Emergency Cold Weather Shelter at the Robert Miller Community & Recreation Center during disaster conditions. This is a short-term, last-resort emergency response designed to protect people during dangerously cold weather.
The Miller Center Emergency Cold Weather Shelter is:
- A temporary, overnight warming and safety space staffed by CVOEO with city cooperation when the Burlington City Fire Marshal declares temperature to be at -10 degrees for a sustained period of at least 4 hours, as sanctioned by the State.
- Located in Burlington’s New North End, and can hold up to 100 beds.
- Staffed by trained, CVOEO personnel representing all 11+ programs, including those not directly connected to emergency housing.
- Open to all adults regardless of sobriety.
- In operation for up to 20 nights per winter and is activated only when the State of Vermont declares an extreme cold weather emergency or when the City uses its local emergency management authority to take the Miller Center offline for emergency sheltering.
Why This Shelter Exists
Extreme cold is a disaster-level event. The shelter’s purpose is to protect people living outdoors on the coldest nights of winter, not to operate as a nightly or ongoing shelter. CVOEO uses state and city resources to activate this emergency response because:
- Exposure-related injuries rise sharply at these temperatures.
- Burlington has fewer year-round emergency shelter beds than the number of people sleeping outside.
- No other organization currently manages this short-notice, high-capacity overnight warming space.
- Not everyone can make it to shelters or state contract motel rooms by check in time.
This shelter is part of a broader regional response and is not a sustainable long-term solution to homelessness. Our long-term work focuses on stable, year-round sheltering and permanent housing.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Contact
For information about Emergency & Disaster Response at CVOEO:
Sarah Russell, Program Director
srussell@cvoeo.org
For statewide winter shelter updates: